Donald Sterling made donations to Dems

Donald Sterling was a modest donor to several Democratic politicians, long before racist remarks were attributed to the owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers.

Sterling donated a combined of $4,000 to Democratic Sens. Bill Bradley of New Jersey and Patrick Leahy of Vermont as well as then-State Controller Gray Davis of California in the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to a database on OpenSecrets.

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In 1989 Sterling cut two separate checks of $1,000 to Bradley, a former basketball player for the New York Knicks who is now in the Hall of Fame. Bradley was reelected in 1990 and retired from the Senate in 1997.

Two years later Sterling backed Davis over Dianne Feinstein in a special election for a Senate seat, donating $1,000 to Davis. Davis lost to Feinstein in 1992 and eventually became governor of California before being recalled.

In 1991 Sterling also gave $1,000 to Leahy, who still serves in the Senate. OpenSecrets database goes back until the 1990 election, and basketball blog RealGM reported in 2011 that Sterling’s political donations totaled $6,000 over the years.

Sterling has drawn widespread condemnation from the sports and political world for audio that surfaced at TMZ.com on Friday in which Sterling berated his girlfriend for bringing black people to Clippers games. Saying it needed to confirm the tape was authentic before proceeding, the NBA was conducting an investigation.

“The owner is reported to have said some incredibly offensive racist statements that were published. I don’t think I have to interpret those statements for you; they kind of speak for themselves,” said President Barack Obama on Sunday.